After allegedly knocking off a gas station in Slidell and another in a nearby unincorporated area late Monday, a pair of men with criminal histories in New Orleans found themselves trying to evade officers, search dogs and a helicopter from two separate agencies. The odds proved too great for them to overcome, though.

View full sizeSlidell PoliceJames Taylor, 28. A booking photo of Travis Chapuis was not available Tuesday.

Slidell police said they caught James Taylor, 28, after he led them on a high-speed car chase down Interstate 10, while the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office said it nabbed Travis Chapuis, 26, as he ate breakfast at a restaurant the following morning.

About 11:15 p.m. Monday, an employee at a Shell in the 60200 block of U.S. 11 called 911 and reported that someone robbed the store of money at gunpoint. The gunman forced the clerk to lie on the floor, so the worker did not see where the robber headed when he left the gas station, said Capt. George Bonnett, a Sheriff's Office spokesman.

Deputies, K-9 units and the sheriff's helicopter responded and canvassed the area but did not immediately turn up anything, Bonnett said.

About 15 minutes later, the clerk of a Shell station in the 1600 block of Gause Blvd. in Slidell's city limits dialed police and told them a man toting a silver handgun marched into the store and demanded cash from the register. The worker emptied it; the robber scurried off in the direction a TravelCenters of America truck stop close by, said Assistant Slidell Police Chief Kevin Foltz.

Officers arriving at the gas station to investigate the incident noticed a green 2000 Nissan Sentra emerging from behind a neighboring business that wasn't open. Sgt. Van Burgess attempted to stop the driver and passenger inside, but the car zoomed off toward westbound I-10, Foltz said.

The Police Department informed the Sheriff's Office about the situation and pursued the car. Nearing the area of the Oak Harbor Boulevard exit, Lt. Ray Dupuy tactically rammed the Sentra, causing it to leave the roadway and halt, Foltz said.

Foltz said Taylor was handcuffed and eventually booked with armed robbery, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and resisting an officer by flight. Officers recovered money from both robberies inside the car as well as a handgun. The companion, however, was nowhere to be found.

A fruitless, hours-long search involving resources from both jurisdictions was eventually canceled -- but not before sheriff's deputies visited several late-night businesses and asked them to keep an eye out for any customer who might be their robbery suspect, Bonnett said.

On Tuesday, someone who works at a Waffle House by Oak Harbor notified the Sheriff's Office about a dirt-and-grime-covered man dining there about 7 a.m. Deputies arrived, and Chapuis surrendered after being positively identified as an accomplice in the earlier crimes.

He is being booked with armed robbery and resisting an officer by flight, too, Bonnett said.

Orleans Parish Criminal District Court records show Taylor, whose address is in the 500 block of Driftwood Circle, Slidell, received 6 months of probation for pleading guilty in 2009 to illegally carrying a weapon. Meanwhile, Chapuis, of the 2100 block of North Broad Street, New Orleans, is dealing with separate pending charges of simple and armed robbery in that same court.

Armed robbery upon conviction carries a punishment of between 10 and 99 years in prison.